Consadole Sapporo 2-1 Nagoya Grampus

Urawa Reds 2-0 Jubilo Iwata

Vegalta Sendai 1-1 Sagan Tosu

Kashima Antlers 2-2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

FC Tokyo 0-2 Albirex Niigata

Kashiwa Reysol 4-1 Cerezo Osaka

Kawasaki Frontale 4-1 Omiya Ardija

Yokohama F.Marinos 3-0 Shimizu S-Pulse

Vissel Kobe 1-1 Gamba Osaka

Consadole surprised Grampus with their second win of the season – Grampus were so desperate for forwards that Tulio played upfront – and scored! But his goal was not enough as Sapporo scored the winner through Shinya Uehara in added time!

Also near bottom, Albirex pulled out a win away at FC Tokyo. The capital team are hit with injuries and the absence of key Olympians, so were well-weaked – something that may come back to haunt the J.League at the end of the season when Omiya Ardija, for example, go down by a point and complain about FC Tokyo’s performance in this match!? Niigata got the points on goals from Mikado and Alan Mineiro.

Table-toppers Sanfrecce were held to a draw at Kashima Antlers – the home team’s goals coming from disappointed-not-to-be-in-London Osako. Maoriwaki and J1 top scorer Sato netted for the away team.

In 2nd place, Vegalta also got held – at home by Sagan Tosu, allowing 3rd placed Urawa Reds to close the gap as they took out Jubilo Iwata (who were 4th before the day started). That’s four out of the last five games drawn for Vegalta Sendai, as the rot sets in?! Reds moved to within three points of the top through goals by Kashiwagi and Abe, and even missed a PK in the process.

Yokohama F.Marinos suddenly found three goals against a similarly low scoring Shimizu S-Pulse, Marinos winning a game that had 0-0 written all over it on goals from Ono, Oguro and Hyodo. Kawasaki Frontale also won their game by three goals – beating Omiya Ardija 4-1 after Ardija had taken the lead through Hasegawa. Nakamura, Kobayashi, Kusukami and Renato were on target for Frontale.

In a Kansai Derby, Gamba Osaka and Vissel Kobe fought out a pulsating game with end to end chances. Gamba finally took the lead through a deflected shot credited to Futagawa and looked on course to earn three very valuable points before OKubo came on as a sub and promptly scored a spectacular acrobatic volley to level the scores.

Gamba’s neighbours Cerezo went down 4-1 to Kashiwa Reysol – in an impressive vein of form – Ryuji Bando scored for Cerezo, in a rare start for him, while Reysol won it on a Kudo hat trick and a single from Sawa. Cerezo dropped down into the relegation places and looked poor without the Japanese Olympic trio of Kiyotake, Ogihara and Yamaguchi – Kiyotake, of course will not be returning to Osaka. The team were also missing Kim, who has also moved on beginning a new life at Cardiff City after LOndon 2012 – as revealed exclusively on this very site on June 7th, way before anyone else!!

Here’s Kiyo at Nuremberg ….